Hi peeps!

Here is chapter 6 of Pretender's got my Heart. I thought I could finish it but it seems I will need one more chapter to round things up. Anyway, hopefully more reading fun for you guys! ;) Please do leave me a review, it makes my day.

Happy Reading!

Chapter 6

Once again, SG1 sat in a circle among the inhabitants of Eroga, ready to celebrate their new alliance - again. Apparently, the Erogans liked to party... a lot. This time, Heram and Nollus were part of the celebrations too, and there were many more villagers than the previous time. SG1 had been introduced to many of them, as most of them were involved in cultivating the plants and taking care of the trees that provided their world with the amazing potions. Jack and Sam smiled and nodded at everyone, Teal'c did his customary bow, while Daniel took up his usual role of enthusiastic culturalist and spoke to every single one of them. At first, he relayed the conversations to the rest of the team, but after a warning glance from Jack, the explanations stopped quickly.

It seemed that the dinner part of the feast was now at hand, as many bowls appeared and were collected on nearby tables. The flasks of potions that were previously displayed were now gone, and replaced by larger bottles, which were supposedly their drinks for tonight.

oOo

Sam was not as excited as the rest of the village seemed to be. Although she was glad that she didn't have to wear the blue dress again, she was not in a party mood. Of course she was happy that the negotiations had gone well. The potions would prove the value of the Stargate program, and would keep the critics off their back for a long while. Then again, tonight her fictional marriage to Jack would end, and after one more agonizing night of sharing that romantic tent, she would once again have to pretend to feel nothing but friendship and respect for her commanding officer. She had been surprised at how easy it had been to fall into the role of his wife. SG1 was close as a team, and throughout their many travels, they had come to count on each other, to trust each other completely. Still, she had quite another sort of relationship with Jack. Although she would risk her life to save Teal'c and Daniel as well, she knew it was different when it came to her commanding officer.

Sam knew the rules though. She was an air force major, and knew that any kind of relationship between them was completely against the rules, and if anything, Samantha Carter followed the rules.

oOo

Daniel was worried. Sam and Jack seemed in a bad mood, and he couldn't figure out why. While he had been talking to the villagers, he noticed they were both quiet and seemed preoccupied. 'It's definitely time for the big plan', Daniel thought. He noticed that Deran had started passing around the bowls of food, and prodded Teal'c who was seated to his left. The Jaffa looked at him and nodded solemnly, then rose and left the circle. Sam and Jack hardly noticed, Daniel saw.

Teal'c silently strode to the tent where Daniel had stored a flask of the potion, the one that had a similar effect as alcohol, and made people less inhibited. Although he wasn't sure about Daniel Jackson's plan at first, he did recognize the love that Samantha Carter and O'Neill shared, but were afraid to show. He believed that his actions would aid his friends, and therefore took the flask and returned to the feast.

oOo

Amid the circle of Erogans, Daniel was desperately trying to start up some sort of conversation to break through the gloomy silence that seemed to have settled on the military members of SG1. "Soooo", he directed at Sam, the most likely person to join him in his effort to start a conversation. His friend looked at him and smiled vaguely, which Daniel took as a sign to continue. "This all turned out better than expected huh?" he asked. Sam nodded. "Yeah," she confirmed, "I have to admit this is not what I expected when we got debriefed". Daniel smiled. "I know…, you hardly had to pretend to be a married woman at all!", he teased. Sam smiled, "and we got some pretty nice accomodations out of it", she added, pretending that the romantic tent wasn't constantly going through her mind and making her uncomfortable, or that sharing the sleeping area with her half-naked CO hadn't been awkward at all. Daniel hummed, noticing in the corner of this vision that Teal'c was returning to the circle. He sat up, immediately feeling alert and excited, but also slightly nervous. A lot depended on the success of his plan…

oOo

Jack found himself again surrounded by the Erogan villagers. Although he had to appreciate what these people had done, or would do, for the people of Earth, he couldn't bring himself to be genuinely happy tonight. In a few hours, he would again face the temptation that was Samantha Carter. He was feeling grumpy, and he knew that Daniel had picked up on it, but he didn't care. Tonight, he just wanted to feel grumpy. He looked up from the continuous stare at his feet, when he saw a pair of large military boots appear in front of him. There stood Teal'c, stoic as always. Jack looked up at him questioningly, but Teal'c just handed him a cup without a word, and then moved on to provide the rest of the team with beverages as well. Jack nodded his thanks, sipping from the drink. One of the reasons he'd immediately liked Teal'c was that he had this way of communicating without words. Besides from the obvious saving their lives thing of course. Teal'c's company was calming, unlike Daniel's continuous babbling about culture, and Carter's rambling about science. Then again, he kind of liked Carter's techno-babble…. 'Don't think about that', he told himself, shaking his head to rid his mind of thoughts about his major and took another sip to wash away the fluttering in his belly.

He looked around at the rest of the villagers to distract himself from this thoughts about his 2IC, but his eyes were very stubborn and continually landed on Carter. Even though she wasn't wearing her astonishing blue dress, he grudgingly had to admit that she looked beautiful in anything, hell, even the standard military uniform made her look sexy.

He sighed into his cup. Even though he had to admit that he had dreamed about them being together for more nights than he cared to count, his self-deprecating brain kept convincing him that someone as smart and beautiful as Samantha could never fall for someone as old and grumpy as himself. Nevertheless, there seemed to have been some… moments… between them over the years. Although he might have just been imagining them. God knows he'd gathered enough head injuries to make his mind a little wacky. And even if Sam had the same feelings for him, the military forbade those kind of relationships… A small voice at the back of his head nagged at him, convincing him that SG1 was different in this aspect, that surely the president would make an exception for them. He sighed again. The basic truth of it was that he just didn't dare to bring it up. If Carter didn't feel about him the way he felt about her, or if Hammond separated them… He couldn't even imagine not working with Carter anymore. He shook his head to empty it and gulped down the remainder of the cup.

oOo

Daniel noticed Jack becoming more and more agitated. He was shifting in place, while his eyes darted around the circle. When they landed on Sam, they flitted away immediately. 'The drink must be having effect...', Daniel thought. He softly jabbed the Colonel's elbow, trying to catch his attention. Jack responded quickly: "What?"

Daniel was surprised. He hoped the potion wouldn't make Jack less inhibited in his aggression, although he had known that was a possibility when he started this. Instead, he tried to focus Jack's attention on Sam.

"Do you know what's up with Sam?", he asked. "She seems kind of down or something."

Jack looked at him oddly. "Why don't you ask her yourself?", he said, "after all, you're friends, right?", Jack continued, a bitter tone added in his voice.

"Yes, we are", Daniel confirmed, "but I thought maybe you'd know, you know, being her husband and all…", Daniel teased.

At this, Jack tensed up. "I'm not her husband, Daniel", he bit back, "I'm her commanding officer". It's you guys who are close." He looked down again. Daniel was taken aback. He hadn't expected Jack to be jealous of his friendship with Sam. Sure, as a civilian he would be allowed to have a relationship with her, but Jack must know that he didn't see her that way… He decided to offer some comfort to his suffering friend and said: "We're friends, Jack, but you two have a deeper connection, I am a witness of that daily." At that, Jack's interest peaked. "You do?", he asked. "You see a … connection between us?" he asked in doubt. Thinking that he was finally on the right track, Daniel continued. "Yes! You guys are like a unit, you know, you communicate without words, you always know what the other's thinking, and you'd do anything to save each other's lives. That goes beyond military loyalty Jack, and you know it!", he ended passionately.

Colonel Jack O'Neill was quiet for a moment, clearly thinking about the words he had always wanted to hear, but was afraid to accept. Daniel waited patiently for Jack to process the information. Suddenly, the military man sighed and turned to face his younger friend. "Ok, here it is; I… think I have some sort of connection with her, you know, beyond the military loyalty kind." He paused and Daniel nodded for him to continue. "But, and I stress but, I shouldn't have such a connection with her, in fact, we could both get court martialed for even admitting that we have such a connection", he ended sadly. "But you do have feelings for her, I mean, you love her right?" Daniel asked. Jack's eyes turned dark and he looked down again. Then, almost imperceptibly, he nodded.

ooooo

That was it for chapter 6, folks. I hope you enjoyed and please pretty please with a cherry on top leave a review :))

E.